The owner of the business, Air-Tite Windows, a highly successful Midwest window manufacturing and contracting firm located in West Chester, OH, listed his property for sale with me. The owner was also in the process of selling the business, so the sale would become somewhat complicated with a new owner of the business as the tenant.

The objective in selling the building was to do it as a sale-leaseback. The owner of the building (and of the business until it sold) was committing the business to a 10-year lease. The purchaser of the building would have the business assets as security against default on the loan.

That fall, I began an aggressive marketing program targeted at local regional, and national investors. Soon he secured an acceptable offer; after the proper due diligence period, the proposed buyer backed away from the transaction.

This happened again within the next few months with a second buyer.

I got with the owner and devised a means wherein any new potential buyer would have most critical due diligence items transparent at the time of entering into a contract – permitting a Purchase Contract to be agreed to that would drastically reduce the odds of another buyer changing course.

The property finally sold to a local Cincinnati investor for the same price as agreed to earlier in the year: $5.3 million. This was one of the highest industrial prices achieved ever for an industrial property of this size in the Greater Cincinnati market.

A broker contact of mine was interested in locating a distribution center for the company Bare Escentuals in Louisville, Cincinnati, or Columbus, Ohio. The target size was 300,000 square feet and it was a fast-track project; the company was hopeful that they could explore the best options in each city, could arrange for a two-day visit during which all possible locations could be physically inspected, and that within 30 days of site visits, a decision could be made.

I made all arrangements for Cincinnati, engaged team members for Columbus and Louisville, and in 24 hours, had the trip arranged, complete with meals en route. The tour took place flawlessly the last week of August and the company remarked later that every one of the 22 sites visited could have worked.

I arranged for the proper market information to be compiled and sent to the company to assist in determining which city would be chosen. Within a week of the initial tour, the Columbus market was chosen, and RFPs went out to two facilities at the end of September. The result? Leases were executed for occupancy in a Kirco facility in Columbus.

A West Coast broker friend of mine contacted me about a high-end, slightly edgy, furniture firm, which was growing by leaps and bounds and needed to start thinking in terms of being less of a design studio — and more a national player in the designer furniture business.

The firm, Design Within Reach, was a well-thought-of Bay Area firm with a global following, and it was evident from the beginning, that California was the wrong place for their distribution warehouse. The need, thought to be about 300,000sf, was more than a little dependent on shipments of furniture from Europe — but still had a very western U.S. clientele.

My broker friend, who was with Colliers at the time, commissioned the Toronto branch to do an exhaustive study — at their expense — to determine the proper location within the continental U.S.

Cincinnati's Northern Kentucky Market proved to be "ground zero." so I went about the process of soliciting proposals from company-approved buildings and developers, all of which were thoroughly screened and vetted through multiple site visits and design approaches.

That September, leases were signed to occupy 216,000sf in a Duke Realty warehouse that was ideally suited for the project, and with the rapid growth, an iron-clad expansion option was secured.

Design Within Reach expanded into the remaining 100,000sf in their building, and the national distribution center of 316,000sf was off and running.

Two other Cassidy Turley team members and I took on the project of listing for sale two buildings recently acquired by Worthington Steel in Middletown, Ohio. Both were special purpose fully-craned facilities devoted to the steel service business. Building One was 81,000sf and Building Two was 234,000sf.

I had recently formed Lakota Commercial Realty, so the team agreed that marketing materials would stay with Cassidy Turley and that I would conduct the marketing effort using Lakota Commercial Realty materials.

In conferencing several times with the new building owner, it became obvious that the company wished to sell the buildings outside of a competing climate, meaning the highest and best use could well be a competitor's enterprise and therefore ineligible. I quickly established a list of companies to vet them with building ownership, and the campaign began.

Materials prepared for the building were thorough and detailed out of necessity. Traffic was brisk with clients procured directly, through local and national brokers.

Building One was put under contract for $1,332,500. Though there was allocation of some of that for included personal property, the price stayed the same and Black Oak Capital Holdings closed on December 28.

Two months later, Building Two was put under contract for $3,750,000. As in the case of Building One, personal property was accounted for within the contract but the price stayed the same. Metal-Matic, Inc., a Minnesota Corporation, closed with an all cash offer (no financing) that following April.

Worthington Steel Building Two

]]>Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:30:00 GMThttp://www.lakotacr.com/case-studies/life-saferI received an assignment through the SIOR network for an interesting project; to find a new home for a fast-growing local enterprise engaged in the design, manufacture, and repair of breathalyzer machines. Some of the early inventors of this technology, originally part of the Cincinnati Microwave family, producer of the well-known "Escort" brand of radar detectors, started a new enterprise years earlier called Lifesafer. The devices were a logical outgrowth—and vast improvement—over the "Guardian Interlock" products started by Cincinnati Microwave.

The company started out with the thought that it needed a service center, or flex building. It soon became evident that, for a variety of reasons, that a ground floor offce space of 20,000sf or more would be necessary.

As an industrial broker, I quickly scoured the market for what few opportunities existed, and within a week had four viable relocation proposals for review by Management. Building tours were subsequently arranged; proposals were refined; and a selection was made to relocate to an industrial building that had been nicely converted to office use by a prominent Cincinnati developer. The lease was signed and the company moved in shortly before their ribbon-cutting ceremony before many local area politicians.

]]>Tue, 06 Jun 2017 19:00:00 GMThttp://www.lakotacr.com/case-studies/gregory-landhealth-allianceThe Gregory Family, owners of the high-profile Montgomery Inn restaurants, decided to begin the process of selling their 102-acre property in Mason, Ohio. Within 45 days, two other team members and I were chosen to market the property. It was 75% zoned light industrial with the balance residential. The family price objectives were to achieve a selling price as close to $100,000 per acre as the market would allow, no matter how long it took.

The industrial market at the time indicated a top sale price of $65,000 per acre. Residential land prices were much higher—but the city of Mason was resolute in that they did not want this site to be developed for residential.

I worked for years on this project, turning away several asking price offers with contingencies for residential conversion. The industrial market did not change much. Family members were kept apprised of the price problem and chose to stay patient in pursuit of a higher return.

Finally, through a broker friend, I secured a possible user who would approach family objectives. The Health Alliance, one of the largest regional managed health care entities in the country, was looking for a campus setting for a mental health facility. Through a long and complex set of application processes, I assisted the organization in convincing the city of Mason that its use was a benefit to the community.

The property was sold to the Health Alliance for $9,524,558, coming reasonably close to the "stretch goal” of years earlier. In fact, considering that the family residence was carved out and donated to a charitable entity, the family actually achieved their original objectives—set by the "Ribs King" himself, Ted Gregory, who was reported to have told family members years earlier, that "this land will someday be worth $100,000 per acre!"

I was contacted by a business acquaintance and friend of the family that owned Crane Fencing Solutions (then called VinylVisions). This Wilmington, Ohio-based manufacturing firm wished to get out of the 278,000 square foot facility that they shared with a sister division and locate closer to the desired employment base in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Over the next three years, I assisted the company in looking at all possible existing buildings in Cincinnati, involving 12 thorough building inspections and evaluations. This also involved site searches in Mason, Lebanon, Blanchester, and Wilmington, Ohio during which all local zoning, presence of utilities, market studies and pre-construction estimates were conducted. Twice during this period the client and I went through a thorough site-specific construction estimate process where, line-by-line, a facility was designed to accommodate the manufacturing process.

Then two years later, an existing manufacturing facility that had been occupied by Leggett & Platt became available. This 215,000 square foot facility was close to the size and configuration parameters desired by the client. The only negative was the inadequacy of the rail service into the building, with some reservations about clear height near the loading areas.

I worked with RailAmerica officials and with Duke Energy to secure the permitting and funding to expand the rail service into the building. I also worked with the City of Mason’s Planning and Zoning Department to secure a variance for the needed outside storage that would be a requirement on the adjoining property. Finally, I played a vital role in the procurement of the needed state and local incentives to assist the company and their 200 employees.

Crane Fencing Solutions purchased the Leggett & Platt facility for $4.65 million and subsequently invested another $10 million in the facility for its intended new use.

Crane building from NE

Crane building from SW

]]>Wed, 01 Mar 2017 13:00:00 GMThttp://www.lakotacr.com/case-studies/plastechstag-capitalAn out-of-state developer friend of mine who had a relationship with Plastech, Inc., referred them to me. Plastech was a key supplier to General Motors and was in pursuit of a 200,000sf regional distribution facility in Dayton, Ohio.

I arranged for all the market tours with another team member and soon secured the right location for Plastech. Several concessions from the building owner were secured, but with the stipulation that the building would be sold to a new owner. Plastech was not interested in owning the facility.

Plastech signed their lease in late August, 2006.

A local firm quickly placed an offer on the property, but quickly retreated when they learned that the building was one foot below the 100-year flood plain.

I contacted a Boston-based investment firm, Stag Capital, with whom he had a relationship; in discussing the overall parameters of the property, including the flood plain issue and the tenancy. The firm soon arranged a site visit.

Complicating the issue even further was the owner’s insistence that the property be closed upon in calendar year 2006.

I arranged for, and successfully closed on, the property with Stag Capital on December 30, 2006 for $3.8 million.]]>